Could ffprobe timeout param be configured?

[henryZZZZZ 3]

I use davfs to mount files from a WebDAV server to a local directory.

Emby server can scan these videos normally, but when using ffprobe to extract their video information, it reports an error: 'file:/media/webdav/aliyun/test/test.mp4: Input/output error'. This problem does not occur with videos stored on a local physical hard drive.

Could this be an issue with ffmpeg?

[Luke 40075]

Hi, please attach the emby server log:

How to Report a Problem

Thanks.

[annibal 4]

I don't know if I can help you but the same thing happened to me when I put my share drive and I ran out of bandwidth available from google drive so check if you make transfers regularly, perhaps via FTP if the transfer fails then it's the same error I was having

[henryZZZZZ 3]

Can the timeout duration be configured? I am using WebDAV mounting for a file size of 600MB, but with a speed of only 10MB/s, it is impossible to complete the ffprobe operation within 30 seconds.

[henryZZZZZ 3]

 I use davfs to mount files from a WebDAV server to a local directory.
Emby server can scan these videos normally, but when using ffprobe to extract their video information, it reports timeout.
Video file is about 700MB, but my server download speed is only 10MB/s . It is impossible to complete the ffprobe operation within 20-30 seconds.

Could ffprobe timeout param be configured?

I manually executed the command and the result was 1 minute and 10 seconds.

 time ffprobe "/media/webdav/aliyun/emby/动漫/更新/狩龙人拉格纳/S01/狩龙人拉格纳.S01E12.mp4" -threads 0 -v info -print_format json -show_streams -show_chapters -show_format -show_data
real    1m 10.71s
user    0m 0.04s
sys     0m 0.01s

 

Size of this video

du -s /media/webdav/aliyun/emby/动漫/更新/狩龙人拉格纳/S01/狩龙人拉格纳.S01E12
579801  /media/webdav/aliyun/emby/动漫/更新/狩龙人拉格纳/S01/狩龙人拉格纳.S01E12.mp4

 

embyserver.txt

[Luke 40075]

Hi, we'll increase the timeout for the next release. Thanks.

[henryZZZZZ 3]

 

Thanks a lot for accepting my suggestions！

I still got some questions:

1. I've noticed that if ffprobe fails, I am unable to retrieve basic information about a video. At the same time, this video cannot record playback progress when played. Are these two issues related?
2. It seems that once a video is successfully probed with ffprobe for the first time, subsequent probes do not occur. Is there a caching mechanism involved?
3. If the second point is valid, then can I perform the ffprobe operation in advance on the server where the video files are stored (my video files and Emby server are on two different servers), and save the information to a file for Emby to read? This would replace the need for Emby to perform ffprobe operations. Is this approach feasible?

[Luke 40075]

Hi, yes these are all connected because saving the progress requires knowing the runtime of the video, and that information is discovered during the media probe.

Quote

If the second point is valid, then can I perform the ffprobe operation in advance on the server where the video files are stored (my video files and Emby server are on two different servers), and save the information to a file for Emby to read? This would replace the need for Emby to perform ffprobe operations. Is this approach feasible?

Hi, currently there is no way to do this.

[henryZZZZZ 3]

Thanks，looking forward to the next release.

[henryZZZZZ 3]

On 12/26/2023 at 1:02 PM, Luke said:

Hi, we'll increase the timeout for the next release. Thanks.

Hi Luke. I tried version 4.8.0.64 and was pleasantly surprised to find that the timeout for ffprobe has been increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds, which solved most of the problems. However, when dealing with some larger video files, 60 seconds still seems a bit conservative.

Is it possible to make this timeout value configurable, allowing users to set it freely?

solved:
/media/webdav/aliyun/emby/动漫/完结/银魂/S01/银魂.S01E03.mkv

still time out:
/media/webdav/aliyun/emby/动漫/更新/石纪元/S03/石纪元.S03E20.mp4
/media/webdav/aliyun/emby/动漫/更新/石纪元/S03/石纪元.S03E12.mp4

embyserver.txt

[Luke 40075]

Thanks for testing. More options are possible for future updates. Thanks.

[StefftheE 1]

Really would appreciate the feature if that timeout was in the config, because i'm running into the same issue. Why does ffprobe need to fetch the whole file in the first place? I've got a workaround by letting the crawler job restart every hour. then it catches the files from local davfs cache ...

you could also estimate the timeout by the filesize .. getting the size should be relatively cheap.

Edited May 28, 2024 by StefftheE

[Luke 40075]

5 hours ago, StefftheE said:

Really would appreciate the feature if that timeout was in the config, because i'm running into the same issue. Why does ffprobe need to fetch the whole file in the first place? I've got a workaround by letting the crawler job restart every hour. then it catches the files from local davfs cache ...

you could also estimate the timeout by the filesize .. getting the size should be relatively cheap.

Hi, probing doesn't pull the contents of the entire file. Usually just the headers in the file.

[StefftheE 1]

On 5/28/2024 at 8:39 PM, Luke said:

Hi, probing doesn't pull the contents of the entire file. Usually just the headers in the file.

Ok, then, the root of the problem is davfs, which fetches the whole file, when opened. do you have any suggestions despite not using dav as media source?

[Luke 40075]

Have you tried rclone for comparison purposes?

[StefftheE 1]

Thanks for the tip, rclone works wonderfully.

[henryZZZZZ 3]

13 hours ago, Luke said:

Have you tried rclone for comparison purposes?

Your reply has resolved a confusion of mine, making me realize that ffprobe actually reads the entire file information.

I switched from davfs to rclone, and the analysis time for newly added files is now negligible. That is crazy.

[Luke 40075]

6 hours ago, henryZZZZZ said:

Your reply has resolved a confusion of mine, making me realize that ffprobe actually reads the entire file information.

I switched from davfs to rclone, and the analysis time for newly added files is now negligible. That is crazy.

HI, so it's better for you with rclone than davfs?

[henryZZZZZ 3]

1 minute ago, Luke said:

HI, so it's better for you with rclone than davfs?

yep